Suspension
Suspensions (also known as throwing potions) are a unique kind of throwing weapon created by shamans using the alchemy tradeskill. Conceptually speaking, suspensions are vials of liquid that explode on impact, triggering a magical effect with each throw. Detailed Mechanics Suspensions are throwing weapons with a proc whose rate modifier is so high that it is guaranteed to trigger on every throw. (The proc triggers even if the ranged attack itself misses, which makes suspensions readily usable even by characters whose throwing skill proficiency is low.) As a tradeoff for this magical effect, suspensions tend to have miserable weapon damage (usually 1) and a high delay (usually 40). Their worth, therefore, is tied up almost entirely in the proc. Suspensions have between 70 and 150 range depending on the specific recipe used to craft them, making them short- to medium-range throwing weapons. Most suspensions offer direct spell damage procs of one of the five basic resistance types (other than magic). These procs have no mana cost, cast time, or recast time and therefore cannot take advantage of the [Damage (Equipment Stat)|Spell Damage stat]] or most effects that add a flat amount of damage to spells of a particular element. The procs can however score a critical blast, allowing them to scale with direct damage spell crit chance and critical severity. Since the proc comes from a throwing weapon that is guaranteed to proc on each throw, attack speed haste will also increase the DPS (although at the price of consuming suspensions faster). A few utility suspensions also exist, including blindness and snare suspensions, which deal no damage (apart from the meager physical damage of the weapon) but will respectively attempt to blind or snare the target with each throw. These procs check against the target's magic resistance stat. Every suspension's proc uses a fixed apparent casting level that does not scale with the user's actual level. The apparent casting level of a suspension's proc is generally 5 levels higher than the required level of the suspension in question. (For instance, rank XII suspensions require the user to be level 75, and their procs are cast at an apparent casting level of 80.) Since the apparent casting level versus the target's level is an important part of how spell resistance works in EverQuest, low-level suspensions tend to be resisted outright by high-level enemies. Using the most current available rank of suspension is preferable when facing challenging foes.. Strategic Impact The cost (in time, dropped materials, and platinum) for crafting suspensions tends to push them into only situational usage. Likewise, although any class can throw suspensions, they tend to prove much more useful for some classes than others. For shamans adventuring alone or in a small group, crafting suspensions provides a way to prepare snare or extra damage for one's battles, allowing alchemy to translate into increased combat effectiveness for the character. The malo line of debuffs]] can be used to help the procs land, somewhat compensating for their fixed casting levels and unimpressive resistance adjustment. For other classes, the uses vary. The snare suspensions are of particular interest to pulling classes like monks who lack a ranged snare for dark parking techniques. Snare suspensions also come in handy as a means to allow a soloing magician to kite effectively while using a ranged fire pet, or even to help a paladin halt fleeing foes without relying so exclusively on stun or root spells. The direct damage suspensions generally work best in the hands of a wizard, magician, or other direct-damage spellcaster as an extra mini-spell to throw while waiting for the global cooldown between spellcasts to expire. The long delay between throws meshes perfectly well with such classes, whose damaging spells usually have a long enough cast time that weaving he throws in between spellcasts works well. While suspensions do next to nothing for rangers (who already have impressive ranged autoattacking using their bows and do not need a utility item to help out their snaring), they can provide a little extra DPS for soloing beastlords who tend to play as a pet cleric and do not spend most of their time fighting in melee range. For players interested in boxing, damaging suspensions can be set to autofire, which makes using them less cumbersome to use than the clicky damage scrolls from research. Naming Pattern Most suspensions currenly in the game are named after the following pattern: "(Quality) Suspension of (Name) (Rank, in Roman Numerals)." The only exceptions to the following pattern are the blindness-inflicting "Darkness" suspensions, which only extend to a rank of III. All ranks of Darkness suspensions have an apparent casting level of 70, but the rank determines how many ticks the blindness lasts (one tick per rank). For other suspensions, the following naming patterns give accurate information about the item in question: Quality (determines the Range stat) *Basic - 70 range *Worked - 90 range *Shaped - 110 range *Formed - 150 range Name (determines element/function) *Darkness - inflicts blindness *Slime - inflicts a snare *Flame - deals fire damage *Frost - deals cold damage *Pestilence - deals disease damage *Toxin - deals poison damage Rank (determines required character level and apparent casting level) *I - no requirement, casts as if level 5 *II - req 5, casts as if level 10 *III - req 10, casts as if level 15 *IV - req 20, casts as if level 25 *V - req 40, casts as if level 45 *VI - req 25, casts as if level 30 *VII - req 35, casts as if level 40 *VIII - req 45, casts as if level 50 *IX - req 60, casts as if level 65 *X - req 65, casts as if level 70 *XI - req 70, casts as if level 75 *XII - req 75, casts as if level 80 *XIII - req 80, casts as if level 85 *XIV - req 85, casts as if level 90 *XV - req 90, casts as if level 95 *XVI - req 95, casts as if level 99 *XVII - req 100, casts as if level 105